New to upgrading car audio

[obv_ius]

I’m new to car audio and I’m working on improving my first car audio (2006 Toyota Camry le). So far I switched out the factory head unit with a Pioneer double din head unit. My rear deck speakers rattle when there are kicks and bass in a song so I’m replacing them with jbl’s. The speakers in the car are 3-1/2 tweeters in the dash, 6x9’s in the front doors, and 6x9’s in the rear deck. I want to add a 10” sub along with an amp in the trunk. Right now where I’m stuck is I don’t know if the tweeters need to have the same RMS as the coaxial speakers I bought. Do they need yo be in the same range of wattage as the coaxial speakers? Also when picking a sub what would be a good RMS to look for?

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[Bobbytwonames 5,000+ posts]

Dump the rear deck speakers and get a nice 5 channel amp. Run the the front 4 channels to your front 6"x9" and tweeters in the dash. There are a lot of budget friendly 10's out there. I'm an American Bass fan, so, a single XD1044. This is the amp and sub that should work for you.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Don't bother with anything in the rear deck. Personally I've very rarely heard tweeters mounted on the dash sound good once (it almost never happens and is a matter of luck and heavy digital processing). Get a good set of 6x9 components for the front doors. JBL stadium are great if you like the JBL lineup,, get about 100W per side in a decent quality amp.

Sub will really depend how much space you want to sacrifice and how loud you like it.

 

[Lasherž]

I’m new to car audio and I’m working on improving my first car audio (2006 Toyota Camry le). So far I switched out the factory head unit with a Pioneer double din head unit. My rear deck speakers rattle when there are kicks and bass in a song so I’m replacing them with jbl’s. The speakers in the car are 3-1/2 tweeters in the dash, 6x9’s in the front doors, and 6x9’s in the rear deck. I want to add a 10” sub along with an amp in the trunk. Right now where I’m stuck is I don’t know if the tweeters need to have the same RMS as the coaxial speakers I bought. Do they need yo be in the same range of wattage as the coaxial speakers? Also when picking a sub what would be a good RMS to look for?

I'm with those two about ditching the speakers since they don't do much for your sound stage. If you don't ditch them then certainly don't upgrade them until you've already got the subwoofer. Trunk decks are some of the worst mounting locations for full range speakers because they provide little to no air cushion (like you'd get in an enclosure/door) which can cause overextension on low notes and they point the wrong direction for higher notes.

If you're experiencing rattle on the rear deck that's usually pretty easily addressed with a little closed cell foam or butyl rope between the individual trim pieces. I didn't have to take mine apart at all to address my rattle issues, but each car is different. If you're going to go with CCF don't get that crap for weather stripping. It'll seem like a good fix at first and it does work, but it's a pain to get off and it doesn't age well. It's meant to survive one or two seasons on a window, not the life of a car.

All you may need to do in order to make your stock ones sound better is seal around the mounting positions (a small amount of butyl rope works well for that) and deaden the deck. More powerful speakers will generally make your rattle worse not better unless it's actually coming directly from the driver (usually because it's damaged or it's going past its max mech limit).

 

[BCotrell]

Which pioneer headunit did you get?
-Another vote to ditch rear deck
-tweeter In the door is easy. Most Comp sets come with little frame cups. 1” hole in your door panel and boom...done. Can leave front stock dash tweeters Alone and disconnected.
- there’s a ton of 6x9 to 6.5 adapters for your car front door that will open up your options considerably on good component set
- how much trunk you want to give up for subs and how much is your total upgrade budget (gear plus instal)

 

[Blacksunshine93]

I kind of agree with ditching the rear deck. Even with a solid sound set up my rear deck has given me nothing but a headache, mainly due to rattling via the cheap materials used. I have taken it many times to get dynamat installed and even a replacement rear deck. I have heard some systems that use the rear deck well and it sounds great! I eventually gave up and faded the sound forward (2016 Civic).

You will have to play with the Front/Back Fade in your deck settings to see if that is something you want to explore. also, check for buzzing/rattling. As stated above, the rear deck could be fixed if it rattles. But keeping them stock is probably for the best as they will just give you a more complete fill of sound around your car because the front 4 & sub is where the main focus of sound is. Rear tweeters don't do much, at least not for me.

You wanna make sure the speakers you buy are to complement the sound profile you enjoy the most. Ultimately this is based on the music you listen to. Don't be afraid to take your time and test a lot of speakers with the music you wanna hear.

In the end, you will find just the right set up for your car. Keep asking questions. No such thing as a dumb question when you're in the audio world. Good luck!